News Archives - 2009

A commentator frequently featured by the Financial Times, Dr. James Boyle is a law professor who is increasingly well known for his articulate and poignant arguments in support of wider access to research. Josh Sommer is a student, patient, and co-founder of the Chordoma Foundation, challenging the likes of Dr. Boyle for their celebrity as he too gains renown as an impassioned and convincing advocate for Open Access to research.

A coalition of national and regional college student associations today issued a “Student Statement on the Right to Research,” calling on universities, research funders, and researchers to take action in support of Open Access to research. The American Medical Student Association, the Student PIRGs, Students for Free Culture, and Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, as well as the Trinity University Association of Student Representatives and the California Institute of Technology Graduate Student Council have signed the statement.

In the debate over "open access" to scholarly research, the Association of American University Presses has weighed in on the "anti" side of things, backing legislation that would end a federal requirement that work supported by the National Institutes of Health be available online and free within 12 months of publication.

In follow up to the recent release of a new set of Frequently Asked Questions on the SCOAP3 initiative, SPARC and ACRL are pleased to host Dr. Salvatore Mele, Head of Open Access at CERN and spokesperson for SCOAP3, at a live Web cast to explore the process of committing to the consortium, establishing its governing board, the project's conditions for the call for tender, and to answer remaining questions. Please join us.

On April 15, the All About Repositories Webinar Series will feature the first online follow up to the successful 2008 SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting. In response to feedback from participants at the meeting, several online events will be organized that explore meeting topics in more detail and anticipate the program of the 2010 SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting, to be held in Baltimore, November 8 & 9, 2010. At the April installment in the series, Joan Giesecke and Paul Royster from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will reprise their presentation on value-added services and delve more deeply into discussion with participants during this one-hour session.